Kindness is the small act of consideration that can be performed in many unique ways. Whether it's giving a smile to a stranger or holding the door for those behind you. It is an act that will shape the lives of those around you. In the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini, it is suggested that to fulfill one's destiny towards peace, one must act selflessly to protect those they love. In the narrative, Laila and Mariam live lives filled with pain and destruction. But they look towards each other to find support, happiness and compassion. Afghanistan, the setting of the novel was depicted as the most dangerous place for a woman, many are faced with cruel hardships, and little respect are shown to woman while the men are placed
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss (...) These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen” (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross). Compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern make mankind beautiful, but it also makes it defenseless . When one has concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others, he takes sacrifices, risks, and lives with uncertainty. When man is compassionate, he lives a vulnerable life. Love and compassion bring out the beauty in mankind, but they can also bring out its weaknesses. Because of man’s compassion, he
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, takes place in Afghanistan between the 1970’s and early 2000’s. The novel starts with Mariam, a teenager who lives in Herat with her mom and rarely sees her father Jalil. One day she goes to see Jalil, but when she arrives back home she sees that her mother has hung herself. Mariam is forced to marry a man, Rasheed, who is much older than her. In part two Laila is introduced as a young girl who lives in Kabul with her mother and father. However the Soviets bomb Kabul, killing Laila’s parents and injuring her. Rasheed and Mariam take Laila in and nurse her back to health. Rasheed marries Laila and has a child with her. In the beginning, Mariam dislikes Laila, however they learn how to become friends
Macbeth is considered to be one of the greatest Shakespearean tragedies written by William Shakespeare. According to A.C. Bradley, it is the "most vehement, the most concentrated, perhaps we may say the most tremendous, of the tragedies" (Bradley 333). Macbeth, written by Shakespeare is a Shakespearean tragedy because it has a tragic hero, mathemata, and a hamartia. These three characteristics are crucial to have in a Shakespearean tragedy and prove that Macbeth is indeed one. More specifically, the tragic hero is one of the most important of the three because without the hero, sympathy cannot be evoked.
Throughout world history women have been treated abysmally. Societies with male-dominance have abused and used women and continue to do so today. Women have been made vulnerable to a man due to the spread of cultural values and beliefs in society that condemn them from power. In Khaled Hosseini's novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the two main characters Mariam and Laila develop an unconditional bond in which they become each others protectors. The immense inner strength of women from adversity has been exemplified through the growth of Mariam and Laila's contrasting relationship, the pain they endure from Rasheed which strengthens their bond and the courage within them that ultimately resolves their conflict.
Friedrich Nietzsche once stated, “The world is beautiful but has a disease called man”. It can be inferred that “man” is a cliché that defines humans in general; therefore, the quote can be interpreted as, the world is pure, but humans are otherwise. I agree with Nietzsche, and I believe that his quote can be reinforced by the morals of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and the various stories found in Greek myths. A Thousand Splendid Suns makes common usage of the theme of struggling and enduring to demonstrate immoral decisions that people have used to hurt others. Greek myths, however, use metaphors that range from characters and what they embody to gods who represent different parts of human life.
The five aspects of quest, which apply to every literary work, are the quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges along the way, and the real reason to go there. The quester of A Thousand Splendid Suns was Laila. The place she was going was Pakistan and her reason was to escape the Taliban in Afghanistan. Along the way she faced many challenges including the death of her parents, being separated from Tariq, and being married to her abusive husband Rasheed. Her real reason to go to Pakistan was so she could be with Tariq once again and save the lives of her children.
Explosions, Death, Loss, Fear- all are great symbols for war in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In this novel, Khaled Hosseini uses tumultuous environments to bring up some of the most interesting characters in the 21st century. The three strongest examples are Laila, Tariq, and Aziza. From losing your parents, to losing your leg, Hosseini uses these types of characters to almost make a connection with them. Because we see weakness in them it truly makes their triumph that much greater. War is a raging bull charging through the lives of many, but for some, it makes them stronger.
Martin Luther King Junior once stated, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals”, in agreeance that justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle, Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns writes about the struggle to achieve justice amongst to characters. Mariam and Laila had very different upbringings, yet they where destined to meet one another through a man, Rasheed, who disrespected women thus advocating injustice.
In the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini, the war setting plays a crucial role in shaping Laila's character and forcing her to grow and change. Her priorities are always changing depending on the environment she is in, causing her to make difficult decisions on what to do. Since the story takes place in a violent and brutal war in Afghanistan, Laila is confronted with numerous challenges and hardships that lead her to pain and suffering. In the end, however, she must endure all this pain and make sacrifices for the ones she loves, even the new people she has met along the way. The setting of the war causes the conflicts to become more brutal and intense, as Laila must deal with the destruction, violence and loss that surrounds
Several themes present in A Thousand Splendid Suns such as poverty, war, abuse of women, and love exemplify the impacts that one’s circumstances can psychologically have on the individual. When Mariam, and later on Laila, were stuck living with Rasheed, they became emotionally scarred and lived in a constant state of anxiety. When Mariam first moved in, she lived in perpetual fear of “...the time Rasheed might at last decide to do to her what husbands did to their wives. She lay in bed, wracked with nerves, as he ate alone downstairs.” Before marrying Rasheed, Laila embraced women’s rights and believed that women could be successful in society, due to Babi’s (her father) positive influence on her. After marrying Rasheed, all hopes of a successful life were destroyed. Her plight was exacerbated when the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan with their strict, misogynistic rules. Afghanistan's near constant state of war had negative implications on the two women, especially Laila. Laila lived in constant fear of bombings and shootings killing loved ones or innocent civilians. Because of this, “...sleep never
Mariam’s alienation prompted by her mother, father, and husband, in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, reveals the oppression and shame around being a woman in the society of her native Afghanistan. Mariam’s countless, inescapable struggles throughout her life were all regulated by the systematic dehumanization of women in a patriarchal society, which resulted in her living in constant shame and fear. Starting from her birth, she was seen as a bastard because she was conceived out of wedlock, from both her parents, Jalil and Nana, and her society. In her childhood, Mariam is marginalized, by living in a cottage far off from the public eye, because of her father’s fear of humiliation and her mother’s fear of Mariam experiencing the
Growing up in Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini had a firsthand experience of the difficulties and hardships of life (Achievement 1). He was born in 1965 to his father, a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry, and his mother, a Farsi and history teacher at a high school in Kabul. He enjoyed flying kites when he was younger, describing them very vividly in The Kite Runner, and was inspired by films from India and the United States, which he discusses in A Thousand Splendid Suns (1). In the 70’s, Hosseini’s father was posted to Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran, Iran. There, Hosseini gained his knowledge on classical Persian literary traditions that both countries share (1). It was here
The summer reading assignment book that was titled, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the same man who wrote The Kite Runner. That story was a about the relationship between a father and a son. Although the author is the same, the main theme changes. It takes place throughout an extended time period of about 40 years and it centers on the relationship between two women from Afghanistan. The story involves numerous characters and the use of these characters allow the novel to take on a life of its own.
The plot of A Thousand Splendid Suns revolves around two protagonists: Laila and Mariam. Most of the story’s characters are round, but Mariam and Laila are exceptionally complex. Mariam is a harami, a bastard, that leaves her mother, Nana, in order to live with Jalil, her father. Jalil rejects her, and Jalil and Mariam later regret the decisions that they made at that point in their lives. Mariam is a quiet, thoughtful, and kind woman who was born in Herat, and her face has been described as long, triangular, and houndlike. She is forced into marriage at the age of fifteen with a much older suitor named Rasheed who abuses her brutally once he learns that she cannot provide him with children. She is also revealed as a very dynamic character early in the story. Mariam quickly develops a mistrust toward men, and she realizes that her mother had been right all along. Another example of a significant change Mariam goes through is the animosity she feels toward Laila that quickly transforms into their friendship when “a look passed between Laila and Mariam. An unguarded, knowing look. And in this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew they were not enemies any longer.” (page 250). Later in the story, Mariam, who was a forty-two-year-old woman at that time, is executed by the Taliban for murder.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a somber story full of tragedies that the war caused, and generous crimes against humanity, it displays almost every mood you can experience. There is anticipation and happiness that Mariam feels as she waits for her father in the beginning of the story; and then there is disappointment that consumes her when she is told that Jalil, her dad, doesn’t want to see her when she waits outside his doorstep. Mariam and Laila experience love through friendship whenever Rasheed is not near, but often they endure the anxiety of his temper and his hatred and beatings towards them. They both savor moments of excitement when they seem to be so close to escaping their brutal husband, but it is soon followed by their close to